The Brutalist is predicted to sweep up this awards seasons. It's nominated in three of the major award categories at the 2025 Oscars - for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. And the movie has already won the big three at the Golden Globes. Directed by Bardy Chavat, it chronicles the life of László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor.
Portrayed by Adrien Brody, László emigrates to post-war America alongside his wife, Erzsébet ( Felicity Jones ). But their fortunes take a pivotal turn when a wealthy industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) commissions László to design an ambitious Brutalist monument.
Although a fictional story, The Brutalist draws on meticulous research about the Brutalism architecture movement -characterised by the use of raw concrete - 'brut' in French. The father of Brutalism is widely seen as Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier,, who designed in 1952 Unité d'habitation in Marseille, France; the 1951–1961 Chandigarh Capitol Complex in India; and the 1955 church of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France.
In the fifties and sixties, Britain benefited from its own ‘Brutiful Years’. Erno Goldfinger, a Hungarian-British Jewish architect was famed for his brutalist residential tower blocks in Britain. Alison and Peter Smithson were also notable British Brutalist architects. In Birmingham. Architects, John Madin, Graham Winteringham, and James Roberts led the way with their cutting-edge designs which helped to reshape the city postwar.
